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Notre Dame Tops Denver in Arlotta Stadium Opener

from press release

NOTRE DAME, Ind. -- The Notre Dame men's
lacrosse team opened Arlotta Stadium in fine fashion with a 14-7
win over Denver on Tuesday afternoon. The ninth-ranked Fighting
Irish used hat tricks from Zach Brenneman (East Hampton, N.Y./East
Hampton), Grant Krebs (Annapolis, Md./St. Mary's) and Sean Rogers
(New Hyde Park, N.Y./Holy Trinity) to secure the victory in the
first regular-season game played in their new facility.

Denver (3-4) jumped on top first with a goal from Todd Baxter less
than three minutes into the contest. The Irish responded with
scores from Hicks and Rogers to claim their first lead of the game
with 9:54 showing on the clock in the first quarter.

Following a Pioneer goal from Mark Matthews, Notre Dame went on a
3-0 run that extended into the second quarter. Igoe started the
surge to put the Irish on top for good by the end of the first
period. Goals from Krebs (14:16) and Earl (12:11) extended the
Fighting Irish lead to three (5-2).

Alex Demopoulos, who led Denver with two goals on the day, stopped
the Irish run temporarily with a score at the 9:42 mark of the
second quarter. Notre Dame responded with a 4-0 uprising that
carried into the second half. Krebs was the first to score in the
run and Rogers followed to put the Irish up 7-3 at the
intermission.

Scores from Hicks and Brenneman made it a six-goal (9-3) advantage
for Notre Dame with less than five minutes gone by in the second
half. Hicks, who has tallied a point in a team-best 24 straight
games, leads the Irish in goals (12) and points (16) this season.
Brenneman, a junior midfielder, is second in both categories with
10 and 14, respectively.

Denver would score four of the game's next five goals to trim the
Irish lead to three (10-7) by the beginning stages of the fourth
quarter. Scoring in that span for Denver were Cameron Kerr,
Demopoulos, Cameron Flint and Andrew Lay. The only Irish tally in
that Denver run was a man-up score from Brenneman midway through
the third period.

Notre Dame produced its second 4-0 run of the afternoon to put the
game away. Murphy, a freshman midfielder, began the final push with
a goal at the 6:58 mark of the fourth quarter. Brenneman scored
with 2:55 left in regulation and Rogers deposited his third goal 33
seconds later to secure the first hat trick of his career. The
sophomore attackman also had two assists for a game-high five
points.

Krebs, a senior midfielder, registered the game's final goal with
1:46 remaining to post his second hat trick of the season.
Brenneman has a team-best three hat tricks this season.

Notre Dame out shot Denver 37-23. Zander Buteux started in goal for
the Pioneers and allowed five goals, while making two saves. Peter
Lowell replaced Buteux with 12:11 left in the second quarter.
Lowell made nine saves and surrendered nine goals. Buteux picked up
the loss.

Notre Dame senior midfielder Trever Sipperly (Greenwich,
N.Y./Greenwich) won 14 of his 24 faceoff attempts and picked up a
game-best seven ground balls. Sipperly has gone 41-20 (.672) in
faceoffs over the past three games.

The Fighting Irish return to the field this Saturday (March 20)
against Ohio State. Game time is slated for 1:00 p.m. (ET) at
Arlotta Stadium.